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09 June, 2012

Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken

I've had Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken on my Grail List since I first learned of its existence several years ago. The sheer bizarreness of a canned whole chicken drew me to it like a moth to a flame. Alas, however, Sweet Sue products have severely limited availability in my area - I might occasionally find their Chicken and Dumplings or tins of chicken breast, but that's it.

However, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous reader who lives in Sweet Sue Land, I recently received the elusive Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken. It immediately went into the fridge, can and all, because the instructions on the label advise that it should be chilled before removing (makes sense - cooked meat is always easier to handle chilled.)

This photo, taken by Tracy O'Connor and first published on her awesome blog, I Hate My Message Board, is what I was expecting to find when I opened the can: a whole (albeit small) cooked chicken, goopy with the broth created during processing. Kind of looks like it just came out of one of the egg pods in Alien, doesn't it?

But when I opened the can, what slid out was even more horrifying.

This is what actually came out.

I poked through the shredded, gooey poultry meat and discovered that there was indeed most of the components of a whole chicken in there. There was skin, lots of bones, and plenty of chunks and fibers that I'm pretty sure once comprised a chicken. The only readily identifiable bits were the legs and the breast; all the rest of the bird had been pulverized.

Needless to say, I didn't bother to follow the rest of the cooking instructions (which told me to put the chicken in a pan in a hot oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, basting frequently with the delicious broth.) I spent some time picking out as many of the bones as I could find, then heated up the whole mess in a Dutch oven and made chicken and dumplings with it.

The flavor was okay. It had the kind of tinny flavor and strange mouthfeel of cheap canned chicken soup, and it was somewhat on the salty side, but the taste was recognizable as chicken when all was said and done.

So, I'm ticking this one off the Grail List, with no regrets - and no desire for a repeat.

It is a real timesaver when I or my wife want to make chicken tacos. The meat falls off the bone, and once heated and seasoned up a bit makes a good filling. It can be really handy for camping. After a day of cold weather hiking, this chicken works when making a quick and easy Arroz con Apollo that will stick to your ribs. While I'm certain it was never intended for fine dining, every can I've ever opened looked like the one depicted in the first picture. The juices make it so much better than chunked or shredded canned chicken.

Seriously Man!!!!!! Seriously!!! Seriously!! Seriously!! you must work for sweet sue or you ate it because you don't turn down free food. Who come up with this stuff. I thought it was a joke because its on most of the Comedy pages of social media.

I disagree with most of you. The bones that you can't get out are soft enough to chew safely, not as tough as fresh chopped celery, fresh ground pepper or okra. It is a convenience food, and I ate it in my husbands grandmothers chicken and dressing (after she went through and removed all of the skin and bones she could find). The broth in the can is extra rich and I used it in the Chicken Pot Pie I just finished serving, with biscuit topping via using self rising flour and milk(not cutting out the biscuit), just pouring it over the top of the stew mixture. I thought it tasted great, no tinny taste to it, and my husband loves it. Of course I added canned cut up green beans, canned carrots that I chopped, canned green peas, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup and another can of just canned chicken breast. Cooked it all in a crock pot 3 hours and served with hot yeast rolls. Tasted wonderful. If you want to eat the chicken right out of the can, have at it, but I use it in my recipes, I like it!

I was married just before Christmas 1960 in Australia. This was before we had frozen chickens so I bought a chicken in a can for Christmas lunch. It was truly dreadful, my husband still talks about it. It was the worst Christmas ever.

That canned possum is a "novelty item," something you could buy at Spencer Gifts at the mall or at the internet-shop equivalent of those places that sold mail-order novelties from the back pages of comic books. It's basically an empty (or water-filled) can with a humorous label.

From the number of websites that keep putting it on their "OMG WORST CANNED FOODZ" lists, though, it's fooled a lot of people.

If you get hurt on bones its your faul..what about whole chicken in the can do you not understand..this is a great product and its very useful in doing stove top casseroles and making dressings along with other great home recipes ..it saves a lot of cooking time,electric/gas and had a home style taste with broth..

When I was a starving student in Franconia NH., my mom would send me one of these about once a month, and since I was washing down the student dining hall tables for my dinner, my one meal of the day, the whole canned chicken, along with some 'borrowed' rice, onion and carrots, was one of my few semi-independent dining opportunities and also, perhaps a moment to share something with others that were also, literally, starving, among the oddly composed groups off Rockefeller's (Chip), Rothschild (shamed nephew) and CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) students that were assembled by one Leon Botstien (BARD) as a part of his Harvard doctoral thesis along with the likes of Benny Goodman (North Country Symphony orchestra) and Emmanuel Axe...so, it is with fond memories that I recall receiving this item via parcel post, sometimes frozen in May, steaming it over an open fire made from lumber mill waste and the remains of Victorian hotels being torn down all around, and thinking how lucky I was...to have a mom that would send her son a whole canned chicken..and mighty tasty it was too, served with home brew made from the active yeast cultures culled and originated from Guinness and Bass that served as our (most popular) science class project..hmm, steamed that chicken in some of that too...

I have a canned chicken I mostly got as a gag gift for my bday last yr,:-) n well it's been a yr n my bday again today lol and am curious to try it but at the same time uncertain. I figured I would try to make something out of it for supper. Your comments have helped. I guess if ya don't try something ya don't know. :-)

Wow. I had 4 cans given to me. Love it. Meat falls off the bone. Yeah you have to separate skin and bones from mea, but the broth and meat makes excellent soup. Maybe someone is shaking your can of chicken so it looks so bad coming out. Mine comes out whole. I wouldn't buy this product because of the price I've seen online, $30, but enjoyed the ones given to me. To each their own.

I still don't understand why you would eat canned food instead of eating fresh? The same goes for canned beans and carrots, etc, when you can get beautiful fresh ones which actually taste how they are supposed to taste.

Agreed - to the person who makes the pot pie with all the canned veggies and cream of soups - I'm hoping that's a 30 minute meal on a very busy night out of desperation. Even frozen veggies are better than canned - but whatever happened to fresh?? And if I REALLY want quick cooked chicken, I'll buy one of the cooked rotisserie chickens at the supermarket and use that. I'll admit I have eaten Trader Joe's or Swanson canned chicken breast meat for a quick chicken salad for lunch, but that's the farthest I'll go. The sight of this (and I think even more so, that whole jelled chicken coming out of the can) frightens me. Kudos to the reviewer who said it's best diet incentive ever! I should pin a pic to my fridge.

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